What Hunter Biden's shocking House committee appearance means for 2024 (and what it doesn't)

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Low on law, high on theater. That’s the best way of looking at Hunter Biden’s Capitol Hill stunt Wednesday morning. The president’s son crashed a public meeting at which the House Oversight Committee was slated to vote on a resolution, based on which the full House would eventually hold him in contempt of Congress — ironically, for defying a subpoena demanding that he show up at the Capitol so the committee could depose him.

I say "low on law" because, in the absence of enforcement, law is just a talking point.

In the federal justice system, for example, we have enforcement: If you defy a subpoena, the FBI arrests you, the judge can hold you in contempt and imprison you until you agree to comply, and the Justice Department can prosecute you criminally for your defiance, even if you have attempted in the interim to cure it. You are apt to be convicted and spend even more time in the slammer.

HUNTER BIDEN MAKES SHOCKING APPEARANCE AT HIS OWN CONTEMPT HEARING

That’s why people don’t defy subpoenas backed by court-enforcement. And because contempt in the justice system is a legal process with real teeth, people don’t attempt stunts, like Hunter’s, that try to hoodwink people into believing they’ve complied when they haven’t. That insults the intelligence. Pro tip: Not a good idea to insult a federal judge’s